"The prompter is invisible to the audience, and he may be only one person among the roughly 250-strong cast and crew, but he plays a major role in keeping everything from flying off the rails." Meet Matthew Piatt, San Francisco Opera's prompter for John Adams's Antony and Cleopatra. - NPR
The new online hub at sfopera.com/firstcentury features recordings from the company’s past, along with rare artist interviews, archival photographs, program articles, oral history excerpts and newly captured conversations among past and present San Francisco Opera creative luminaries. - Gramilano
Musicologist Imani Danielle Mosley surveys the music that's been used at the obsequies for Queens of England from Elizabeth I (the first to have an Anglican funeral) through Mary II (Purcell), Anne, Caroline (a major anthem by Handel), and Victoria — plus Princess Diana and Prince Philip. - The New York Times
Renée Fleming (Clarissa Vaughan), Joyce DiDonato (Virginia Woolf), and Kelli O'Hara (Laura Brown) give a joint interview about preparing Kevin Puts's opera (based on Michael Cunningham's Pulitzer-winning novel) for its fully-staged premiere in November. - The New York Times
We created a unique album solely for the pleasure of giving it to Queen Elizabeth. With the help of Billy Strayhorn, he composed The Queen’s Suite, had one record manufactured—and sent it directly to Buckingham Palace, solely intended for Her Majesty’s ears. - Ted Gioia
Rosália won Latin Grammys for her album El Mal Querer - a flamenco-pop fusion that also became her thesis project at the Catalonia School of Music in Barcelona. Now she says her new flamenco fusion album is based on "the fragmented chaos of the internet." - Los Angeles Times
"Writing with clarity of vision is tricky given how embedded Vaughan Williams is in British musical culture. He wore many hats in his time: symphonic composer, choral society conductor, folksong collector, hymn-tune compiler. ... He remains the nation’s favourite composer." - The Guardian (UK)
The average outdoor concert, powered by diesel generators, "releases 500 metric tons of carbon dioxide—that’s roughly the same as driving 100 gas-powered cars in the U.S. for an entire year." Not so the concerts of Lukas Graham. - Time
From modest beginnings in 1922, the company has grown and blossomed to become one of the preeminent organizations in American opera. - San Francisco Chronicle
“You are the last orchestra and the most important orchestra where I have been music director. Your memory will accompany me in my heart to the end of my life. You, Chicago, are the Symphony of my heart. Grazie.” - New City
"Lenny was feverishly finishing music even as the premiere was approaching. I remember hearing that Alvin Ailey would be waiting for the next piece of music that would involve dance so that they could rush to put it together." - MSN (The Washington Post)
The concert itself was cancelled, but that doesn't mean the orchestra didn't perform: instead, these musicians from the capital of the rebellious 13 colonies played a two-piece tribute to Her Majesty that moved just about everyone. - The Philadelphia Inquirer
This year's iteration of the popular and somewhat rowdy celebration of British patriotism was to have happened on Saturday evening. Friday's concert by the Philadelphia Orchestra was also called off. - The Guardian
"I’ve tried to play Mozart well for 60 years now. When I started I had little clue. How fast should it go? (There are no metronome marks as in Beethoven.) What kind of sound? What note lengths were implied by the various editions? But by 1970, luckily for my generation, help was at hand." - The Guardian
Hobart Earle, who's currently helming the orchestra on a special visit to Berlin: "I never imagined that I would be a long-term music director. And I certainly never planned on being a music director in a time of war." - The New York Times
